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Over the last two days, CBBC, with the help of the Library of Birmingham, hosted a spectacular festival to celebrate the love of reading. Sheena and I were invited to bring Dave Pigeon along to join in the celebrations.

We were in amongst many brilliant authors and illustrators who came together to talk about how much we loved writing, illustrating and story telling. And our love for pigeons of course.

Here are some piccies from a wonderful trip to Birmingham:

We took questions from the CBBC presenters Lauren and Karim in a segment they called ‘Frequently and Infrequently Asked Questions:

And the infrequently asked questions did not let us down:

Here’s the moment Lauren reveals she once swallowed pigeon poo:

Then on to the main event: 

Sheena illustrated live as the children created new pigeon characters and helped us write a brand new Dave Pigeon story complete with a treetop bakery, rabid dog, jammy biscuits and a rocket to Mars.

Thank you to all the brilliant and imaginative children who came along to make characters and stories with us and everyone at CBBC and the Library of Birmingham for being so wonderful.

Hurrah for Team Awesome!

Such a lovely review of Dave Pigeon from Damyanti and brilliant, bird feeder designer daughter Freya here.

This afternoon, Dave Pigeon took over gorgeous children’s bookshop The Alligator’s mouth.

After reading the first chapter and a quick jammy-biscuit refuel, the children took on the challenge of building and decorating their very own bird feeders.

I was blown away by how imaginative and impressive the children were when it came to making welcoming spaces for our feathery friends. The pigeons of Richmond are in for a treat!

Yesterday, The Best New Children’s Books 2016 supplement was available in The Guardian and guess what? Dave Pigeon was in the mix! I’m so over the moon to see Dave Pigeon in the company of so many other fabulous books.

Have a read of this lovely review of Dave Pigeon over on Luna’s Little Library.

It’s Sunday. It’s finally stopped raining. What better way is there to celebrate the end of half term but delighting in books at the Stoke Newington Literary Festival?

Today I was without my trusty partner-in-crime, Sheena Dempsey, so my mission was to recruit young illustrators and designers to help me fill their London gardens with bird feeders for our pigeon friends. And Stoke Newington did not fail to deliver.

After story time, the children got to work designing their bird feeders to give pigeons a safe place to eat their jammy biscuits and croissants without the fear of being pounced upon by naughty cats, hungry for a feathery snack.

And what a brilliant job these budding artists did. Here are some of the bird feeders from today’s workshop.

After, we got to work penning a new adventure for Dave and Skipper. It was full of picnics and cat fights, an electrifying escalator and a mad dash on a scooter to The End where the pigeons found their way to the safety of their bird feeder.

I had such a blast today and thank you so much to everyone who looked after me at Stokey. It was such a brilliant festival and I can’t say thank you enough for the BEST goodie bag ever.